THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 



ONE of the greatest of Roman Emperors, when 

 lying upon his death-bed at York, said, " Omnia 

 feci, nihil expedit." And yet, when asked for the 

 watchword of the night, with his dying breath he 

 gave it: " Lahore mus." M. de Lesseps, in the course 

 of his long and honoured career, has made the watch- 

 word of the dying Emperor his rule of life : but he is 

 not likely, when his last hour comes, to " look on all 

 the works his hands have wrought and on the labour 

 that he has laboured to do," and find them " vanity 

 and vexation of spirit.'- For what else was the ox- 

 clamation of the Iloman Emperor but a paraphrase of 

 the Preacher's sermon upon the vanity of all human 

 effort and human enjoyment? In a spiritual sense 

 all this is true enough, no doubt, but the labour of a 

 life mainly devoted to the furtherance of works cal- 

 culated to benefit others rather than oneself, and to 

 add to the general sum of the welfare of humanity, is 

 not assuredly wasted. 



